Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-05

! for It's stability Our political system was NJ
| experiment that might well fill the minds of the
noble men who planned and laid its foundation
with troubled presenhSeEts.
safes OF previous REPUBLICS
in a liniied way the experiment had seen
| tried bcsJTe, and alway5 terminated fatally
| The rage OF She popular faction had dashed the
| republics q Greece and Rome into atoms. CalI
enemies abroad had always predicted that oai
| attempt at e free governments would end in a
| like disaster They said it was a government
| hanging on ne ragged edg.s'os snarchy, and
would one Dag break into fragments. They
| believed the popular mind was too fluid and
Huctuatfng an element to build s'stable govern
neut upon. 1t viii sail smoothly as long as the
waters are calm ard the winds Eropitlous, but
~ cannot stand leDG stress OF bad weather.
me strongest ana most eentralize 2sHo2archies
have not always been able tn stand the political
toriadoes that blow aeIOsS the centdries-henee
u Is Jolly tor you to expect your looeciS pinned
log raft OF States can nde down a terrible gale.
Wen, the war cana. war of unparalleled
magnitude and cost: ttas divided forty millions
OF people INTO two camps; turned every church,
school and college in tii.s land into fec--riting
stations and dashed fire and blood likc.storm
spray upon every home. There is not nation
on the face of the earth that could staud IT, be
brayed and pounded so long in such mortar
without undergoing a radical change n, its
political structure. Our system
CAME OUT oF THE CRUCIAL TEST
Stronger and more compacs than ever before
We have seen the great national wounds heal
ing by the hrst intention, and promising not -
leave scar. We have seen the great national
debt steadily aud silently diSsolying our credfs
the amazement of the financial world and our
country growing rich and prosperous at a rate
unprecedented in history. Surely il is abost
time this hideous old spectre of disruption was
laughed down as graveyard superstition but
there are many of our uolitcal writers who fancy
they see danger in our widely-eXtended terri
Republics, they say may do very well on a
small eompacs territory. but grow brittle spread
over wide space. 1t is not likely that the inter
estS OF Maine and Texas New York and San
Francisco can always be identical enough to
live in friendly unity. They seem to overlook
the fact that the stability of government is in
the ratio of its facilities OF Communication
America said Tallyrand, g is a giant with
ont bones. Wen the bones have been growing
very fast the last twenty years, and they are
BONES OF IRON AND STEEL
While our geography has expanded in space it
has contracted in time The United States is
more compact and adhesive to-day than when
the thirteen States emerged from the revolution
It took General Washington longer to cross the
little state of New Jersey with n small army
than IT did General Hooker to throw a whole
army corps from the District of Columbia to
Lookout mountain. And this facility of com
munication is steadily increasing The steel
rail interlaces the whole land ard our inter
state commerce is weaving the north and the
south, the east and the west, into one vast web
Of material Interests and social relations and
what is better still the stability of this Govern
ment rests upon the moral convictions and pa
triotic sentiments of the people
At no period in orr hi tory has the love of the
Union, the love OF nationality, the love OF the
old Tag, been SO universal, pervasive and ardent
The Executive and Congress may clash: Su-
preme Courts may err party wrath may surge
in angry waves; but of one thing we may rest
assured, that so long as the foundation of this
Government rests upon the hearts of the people,
the gates OF hell cannot prevail against it.
IMAGINARY BOUNDARIES OF OUR NATION.
There is another bright harbinger that to the
American patriot should be the source of unset
tsh JOY and qualification. Among the legends
of the civil war is the story of dinner party in
Paris, given by the American residents on hide
pendonce Day, at which were propounded
sundry toasts. Although it was during the
darkest hour of our civil STRIFE, the bigness of
our country seems to have been the dominant
idea. The first speaker arose and said Here
is TO the United States, bounded on the north by
British America, on the south by the Gulf Of
Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and
on the west by the Pacific Ocean"
Not to be outdone the second speaker an
nounced as his sentiment: "The United States
bounded on the north by the Nolth Pole ON the
south by the Sou Pole, on the east by the
rising sun, and on the west by the setting sun.
This seemed large enough to crafty the most
patriotic imagination, but the third one put on
the capsheaf when he said: Il give you the
United States, bounded on the north by the
Aurora Borealis, on the south by the pro-
eession of the Equinoxes, on the east by the
PriGeval Chaos, and on the west by the day of
Judgment.
Now extravagant as this bit of post-prandial
rhetoric may seem il contains great kernel of
truth. We are working political idea in this
country that knows no ATTITUDES nor longitudes
1t belongs to no age, no people. no language or
cline. 1t is as old rs humanity; it belongs to
the race.
HIGHER CIVILIZATION AND CIVIL LIBERTY.
Now, it is fact that as fast as the nations of
the earth come upon a certain plane of civiliza-
ton, they feel i'll their veins the pulsations of
civil liberty, and look forward TO the political
freedom and equality that we enjoy ss posi-
bic ideal. This tendency is admitted by the
best writers and thinkers OF the age. More
than fifty years ago that far-seeing Frenchman
NJ. de Tocqueville, declared that Democracy
was inevitable, and the soerer the crowned
heads of Europe made up their minds to meet
it The better. Il is becoming more apparent
every day that patriotism is dying ont in those
old Governments, and that monarchy absolute
or limited, is falling into decay. They are
silently and slowly melting away, like icebergs
that have dritted into southern seas.
We are in the van of world-mOVement: we
are called upon to keep the beacon lighthouse
Of the Nations, guiding them over troubled
waters into the harbor of liberty, by the splen-
dor of our Nations example. This is our place
in history, and it is noble heritage. We are
invited by a benign Providence to go on climb
ing the mouTtains of the future with the old
flag in our hands as Il symbol of universal
liberty.
In order 10 discharge this duty and secure an
exalted destiny, every true American citizen is
called upon to act as the custodian of The ma
ton life and health. Among the many WAYS
that we can do this is an intelligent understand
ing of our political system, its growth, and evo.
luton; the ideas it represents, and the mission
ii was intended TO fulfill. This is Indispensable
to the full enjoyment of our free institutions II
is the essential qualities of good citizen No
form OF government demands so much intelli-
gence as ours, Tor no form so largely trusts the
people.
DEMANDS UPON CITIZENSHIP.
Political instruction should form a liberal
part of every high school and academic course;
it is Il kind of knowledge that is absolutely
necessary 10 preserve the stability aud tran
guilty OF free government. Pfoudly as we may
boast of our free schools. and the general diifu-
sion of knowledge. there is more danger to be
apprehended from ignorance or Indifference to
the mechanism and working of our system than
from any other quarter. Hundreds are marched
to the polls led by few political captains who
fix the slates and distribute the offices. They
toss up their caps, set all the old barre ablaze
and tear campaign odes and songs 10 tatters for
some leader whose sophistry and trick of words
they have not the skill to detect, or the inelina
ton to unravel. Now, ii is
THE DUTY OF EVERY MAN
To be able to tell wherein our form of govern
ment differs from all others. He should know
when a question is in agitation whether it tends
TO thwar1 the central idea, hamper The full play
OF its energies, without consulting some Dcddler
of political notions who has a special interest in
pulling his wares. ! am not talking of a liberal
education-that boon may not be pc ssible to all
-Dut tnere j. no man so DuSy, OF SO absOrbiuglY
occupied, who possesses average ability who
may not acquire such practical knowledge of
political affairs, if he cares to- and is economi-
cal of his time.
Then, there has never bsen period in the
history of our country when its political affairs
needed so much thought. The reason IS oovi-
ous; we are no longer living on fine sen iments;
the emotional died out with the pangs of the
war. ]; was easy to hate slavery and shout for
the dear old flag; for that kind of patriotic fer
vor required very little effort. But politics has
become unsentimeutal; there is not much room
LETT in it for romance and poetry; it has come
down TO dry, hard. practical business princi-
pies. We are now chiefly concerned in Ques-
tions of tariff, taxation, capital AID labor: q1es-
tions OF commerce. education agriculture, i'm
migration, cooperative industry, and the like.
Range over the whole field as far as You can,
and you will find the live ideas now in the air
demand more thought than feeling.
NEED OF INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIss.
Then again, we need a patriotism that viii
prompt every citizen to take direct interest in
public affairs and seek in all proper WAYS to
voice his own will. One of the great hinder
ances to good government is the apathy with
which SO many intelligent and Influential eiti-
zens regard this duty. IL has become proyerbial
that We only get cut the full strength of cur
voting population about once in four years.
and not always then. Many have it foT q boast
<let they take no interest in politics they never
attend the primaries; the only point where the
man OF the voting population comes in imme-
diate contact with the government. They never
attend political meetings. They are even in
clined to neglect the polls. They are disnosed
n